A NEW APPROACH TO OIL PALM WOOD UTILIZATION FOR WOODWORKING PRODUCTION (Part 2: Wood Modification with Organic Resin)

The first stage of this study has demonstrated that oil plam wood has inferior characteristics in comparison with the conventional wood, and suggested to upgarade oil palm wood quality to increase its possible use for woodworking purposes. The use of organic resin (JRP-2) has been examined in this study for improving dimensional stability, strength and machining quality of the oil palm wood. Resin treatment was conducted by frying wood samples in a hot resin solution maintained at 60-80'C. The treated samples were then oven dried to reach 10% moisture content. After conditioning, wood samples were subjected to various tests. Results indicated that organic resin treatment significantly improvedoil palm wood dimensional stability of morethan 50%. Machining and strength characteristics of the treated oil palm wood were comparable with the quality of conventional timber.